House of the Week: Carradine Family’s Telluride Retreat

Music promoter Bill Graham was best-known for his concerts in the Bay Area, where he hosted famous rock groups including the Grateful Dead, The Who and Jefferson Airplane. But in the 1980s, the concert guru also hosted concerts in Telluride, where he owned a rustic estate.

After Graham passed away in an accident, actress Sandra Carradine and her ex-husband, actor and songwriter Keith Carradine, purchased the home.

“I knew the house, and I knew Bill really well,” Sandra Carradine said. When they bought the home, they also purchased many of Graham’s accessories and memorabilia, including something Carradine calls the ”Bill Graham Grateful Dead sofa.”

“It’s a sofa that he personally designed,” she said. “It’s quite beautiful for how old it is; it’s an amazing sofa.”

The rest of the house is just as well designed. Built in the 1970s — Graham bought it in the early ’80s — the home sits on 7.5 contiguous lots. A creek meanders through the property, and a ski slope is a short walk away. Despite the feeling of seclusion and privacy, the home is minutes from downtown Telluride.

Measuring 6,000 square feet, the home is light-filled — even in the dead of winter, according to Carradine — and built for entertaining with welcoming and comfortable spaces.

It’s hard to pick a favorite place in the house, she says.

“The home is so well thought out,” she said. “It really just sounds silly, but it must just be a foundation of the home; it’s just a well-built home. You walk in and you just feel so cozy.”